Finding common ground to really celebrate Australia

January 26th is a difficult day for many Indigenous People, reminding them violence and a destruction of their culture. For many it's the day when they officially become Australians, with many citizenship ceremonies held on this day. But each year the voice to change the date gets louder.

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Currently the celebration of Australia Day is held on January 26^th. It's a day for concerts, speeches, barbecues, national symbols and to officially the end of summer break.

But it hasn’t always been that way.

The celebration of Australia Day has changed dates multiple times – it was celebrated on different days and months in different states as well.

The current date, established as Australia Day in 1994, sparks many protests.

Indigenous People and increasing numbers of their allies are demanding a change of the date.

They say January 26^th marks a day that changed the lives of Indigenous People forever, and not for the better.

Councillor Angelica Panopoulos agrees that the date: January 26^th is wrong for such a celebration.

"We’ve heard that January 26th represents a day of mourning and survival and invasion. And it is the day that captain Arthur Philip came to Australia, he arrived in 1788 and that really begun the dispossession and genocide that we’ve seen in this country. And this day is incredibly important because it marks the day when it all begun. And the fact is that we still got huge issues with intergenerational trauma, systemic racism and huge issues in the criminal justice system as well, that are legacies of this. And so that’s why it is very important that we listen when we are told by First Nation’s People that January 26th is not a day to celebrate, we should just listen to them on that one."

Aboriginal singer - songwriter Gavin Somers acknowledges the importance of having a day to celebrate Australia as a country and being Australian.

However he says the date must be one everyone can identify with.

"It’s really important on January 26th because it’s a real day of identity for Australia. For us as Aboriginal People it is a conflicting day, because, you know, we do want to celebrate being part of Australian identity, we are in the fabric of that?  But you know, the date is wrong, it’s just completely wrong. We need to have a date that we can celebrate proudly, alongside our allies, who are other multicultural groups who live here too. It’s important that we get together and actually celebrate this day on a date that we can actually all identify with."